Project 365: Days 111 - 117

Day 111: New bed - my little one is asleep in his new bed but it hasn't been easy.  He keeps going back into my bed any chance he gets.  I'm sure we'll get there but it could be a difficult week.  Wish me luck.

Day 112: Spring cleaning - I've been sent a steam cleaner to review and I'm strangely excited at the prospect.  Is that wrong?

Day 113: Having fun - I got up to find my three boys playing and looking at books in our new mini library (how posh am I?)  It was a lovely sight to see them all smiling and laughing,

Day 114: For sale - I'm trying to make a bit of extra cash by eBaying anything I can.  The only downside is having a bedroom full of bags of items for sale.

Day 115: Colouring - my middle and youngest boys decided to do a bit of colouring today.  The only problem was that my youngest decided to colour himself in too.  

Day 116: Smiles - but unfortunately this was quickly followed by tears as my little one developed a really bad cough which I think is croup.  He was really poorly and I was up with him for most of the night.  I hope he gets well soon.

Day 117: Gardening - we did some planting today; the boys planted sunflower, pumpkin and sweetcorn seeds that we were sent to review.  They really enjoyed themselves and can't wait to do some more.

Project 365: Days 69 - 75

Day 69: A family get together - As it was mother's Day we all went to my sisters for food.  The boys had great fun playing with their cousins and I enjoyed a good chat with my mother and sisters.  O decided that he wanted to try on some 3D glasses and was delighted when everyone laughed at him.  He is quite the little joker.

Day 70: Jigsaw marathon - I got home from work to find that the boys had filled the floor with jigsaws. They had a lovely time putting together as many jigsaws as they could find, but what I loved was that they worked together really well.  Hardly any fighting, crying or screaming for once.

Day 71: Hungry Hippos - I've been to work today but managed to catch this photo of the three boys playing Hungry Hippos.  I love it when they play games together.

Day 72: Flower - My Mothers Day flowers are still going well.  I'm going to try to learn how to take the perfect shot of a flower.  That's my mission for the next few weeks.

Day 73: Swings - O managed to talk me into taking him to the park after the school run even though it was freezing.  It was great to see him running around and getting some fresh air, and he particularly loved the swing.  

Day 74: Finger painting - O asked to do some painting this morning so we got the finger paints out and covered the floor.  I enjoyed getting mucky and dabbing paint everywhere; including all over himself.  We now have a series of dots over numerous pieces of paper :-)

Day 75: Snow! - It wasn't forecast but we've just had a really heavy downfall of snow.  It's all white outside.  It looks very pretty but I'm starting to get desperate for some warmer weather.  Will I ever be able to get my sandals out from the back of the wardrobe?

Project 365: Days 27 - 33

After all the snow of last week, we have had a week of gale force winds and heavy rain so most of the week has been spent indoors.  We made the most of it by playing lots of games.  On the one fine day that we had we escaped to the park, but only for an hour before it started raining again.  Here's week 5 of Project 365.

Day 27: Family ten pin bowling

Day 28: There's an attack on the castle!

Day 29: Playing games on a rainy day

Day 30: More rain, more games, more fun

Day 31: Nothing better than building blocks

Day 32: The only rain-free day this week so we went to the park

Day 33: Dressed up for a birthday party (and happy that there's cake!)

Snow Days

It's Day 8 of snow here.  The children love it and don't want it to go, but I'm getting quite sick of it now.  I dread doing the school run as there's nowhere to park due to piles of snow everywhere, and the postman hasn't made it into my street for a week!

View from my window

The great thing about it is seeing the children have so much fun.  I've been looking through my photos from the last week and love to see the children so rosy cheeked and smiling.

All smiles

The long walk back up the hill

The only disappointment is that I don't seem to have any of my oldest.  He just races off and is too fast for me.  I'll try to catch him before the snow disappears.  He did build this fabulous snowman though.  Hubby finished it off with some Lego pieces, a bucket, cones and a toy golf club!  Strangest looking snowman I've ever seen.

Our Lego snowman

My youngest wasn't too keen on the snow; in fact, he refused to go out for the first few days but curiosity finally got the better of him and so here he is taking a few precarious steps in the snow outside the house while his big brother helps to clear some snow from the driveway.

Little one finally made it out in the snow
Big brother helping to clear the snow
Yet another snowman

Whatever I think of the snow it is very pretty.  I took this photo of my neighbours tree because I love the way it looks all covered in snow.

Did you get any snow where you are?  Are you still enjoying it, or will you be glad to see the back of it?  I've never been more desperate for it to rain (don't tell my boys I said that!)

I'm linking this post up with Country Kids over at Coombe Mill

Coombe Mill - part 2

One of the best bits of staying at Coombe Mill was the feed run every morning which my boys thoroughly enjoyed.  But the is more to Coombe Mill than the animals.

On our first night there we went for a wander around the grounds and the children were delighted to find this fantastic play area.  There was a pirate ship and a trampoline and lots of muddy puddles for the little one to jump in (though these are weather dependant!)  It was hard to get the children out of there but as it was getting late, and we were all starving I bribed them with chocolate appealed to their better nature to get them to come back to out fabulous Scandinavian Lodge.

Ship Ahoy!

The Scandinavian Lodges are amazing.  The one we stayed in could sleep up to seven people so there was lots of room.    The living/kitchen/dining area was open plan and the full ceiling height made it even more spacious.  It was like a home from home as the kitchen was fully equipped with every appliance including a washing machine and tumble dryer, making those wet, muddy days so much easier and I could throw it all in the wash.  

The decking outside our lodge

Popping into reception was great as there were lots of things there to borrow or buy.  From bread and milk to homemade meals and desserts to buy.  Wellies, potties, games to borrow.  There's no need to pack your car with everything your little one needs as most of it is available to borrow on a first come first served basis.

I mentioned one of the play areas earlier; well that's not the only one.  There was another outdoor play area right next to our lodge.  The children would go racing off to it at any opportunity.  My oldest just loved the zip wire and the younger two loved the swings and climbing frame.  There's a baby swing here too which my little one thoroughly enjoyed.







If the weather is really bad there is an indoor play area.  We did have a look but never used it as, even though we stayed in October, the weather wasn't too bad, and even if it was raining the kids didn't care and would be outside playing with their waterproofs on.



We had lots of fun at Coombe Mill but we did spend some time exploring the surrounding areas.  It took us a while to get used to the narrow country lanes (though I do think that some of them could have been avoided if we hadn't followed our sat nav!), but we found some absolutely beautiful areas.  From Port Isaac on a drizzly day......

To the amazing Polzeath beach.  Who would have thought that it's October!!  The children adored it here.

 We also found a lovely little model railway museum and my train obsessed 2 year old can't believe his eyes.

We ended our week with a visit to Padstow for fish and chips, followed by ice-cream.  

Rain or shine, there is so much to do whether you stay on the farm, or go exploring.  This was my first visit to  Cornwall (and Coombe Mill) but it certainly won't be my last.

Our holiday at Coombe Mill - the animals

What seems like only weeks ago, I entered a competition over at Coombe Mill to win a weeks holiday with them and to my utter amazement, I won!  It couldn't have come at a better time as finances have been a bit tight this year and we'd decided not to have a family holiday.  Even more amazing was that this year I had really wanted to go to Cornwall as it's somewhere I've never been.

I had already chatted to Fiona, the lovely owner of Coombe Mill on Twitter and knew that my family would love it there.  I wasn't wrong.

We arrived late on the Saturday afternoon, and after a quick look around our fabulous Scandinavian lodge, we set off to find the animals.  We were greeted by some ducks who decided to accompany us on our walk, much to the delight of the children.  We then came across these fine fellows who are obviously used to being fed by visitors.  We felt very guilty at being empty handed and promised to return the following day, bearing gifts.

The next morning we were all up bright and early to go on the first feed run of the week.  I don't know who was more excited, me or the boys!  Farmer Ted arrived on the tractor and the boys couldn't believe it when he asked who wanted to drive!!.  Needless to say, Zac and Ethan couldn't wait to have a go.  We were very lucky that there were only a few children there and so every child got to have a go at driving each morning.

Here's some of my favourite photos from the feed runs

I took over 250 photos throughout the week and it is so hard to choose just a few, especially as the animals were so photogenic.

I enjoyed the feed runs just as much as the children, even with a wilful 2 year old to look after....

The pout

In the 90 minutes that we spent on the feed run, there would be numerous mini strops due to the little one not being able to do what his big brothers were doing.  He wanted to go in with the pigs, chase the ducks, feed the donkeys (he did try this but couldn't quite grasp the concept of keeping his hand flat).  He also tried to feed the chickens but the poor things ended up covered in food as he just threw it over them.  He loved it though, and started saying all the names of the animals, which is amazing as he hasn't said that much up to now.  His favourite word at the moment is 'duck'.

There was one other thing that the children loved to do every morning.  They were determined that they would be able to get the sword out of the stone!

The Sword in the Stone

I've decided that it's impossible to write about our fabulous stay at Combe Mill in one post, so watch out for the next instalment.  I've developed an innate love for this beautiful place and Cornwall as a whole and can't wait to go back.

I am linking up with Country Kids on the Coombe Mill blog

One of those days

I've had a bit of a shitty day today due to my shopping arrive more than an hour and a half late resulting in me being two hours late for my lunch with my friends, then I had really bad toothache this afternoon and there wasn't a single painkiller in the house.  Combine this with the boys not listening to a single word I said and I can safely say that it's been 'one of those days.

For this reason I've decided to spend the rest of my evening eating junk food and watching reality TV to cheer myself up but I knew I had to write a post first to make sure I get my new shoes at he end of the month.  So for today I'm going to post my favourite photos from the day.  Because even with everything that went wrong, the boys still had fun.

Birthday Boy

I've had a busy few weeks what with the Easter holidays and the children being home, and then this week, my oldest boy turned six.  I still can't quite believe it.  I am now a mum to a six year old.  It may not sound like a big deal, but to me it feels huge!  I think it's because I've always seen the 0 - 5 age range as still being a baby.  Having a six year old means I've got a big boy.  So it was a week of celebrations and fun (plus a lot of stress for me).

The drama around his birthday has been going on for a few weeks.  Up to now I've always had a big birthday party for my him, inviting all my friends children, the whole class, and anyone else that I met in the run up to it.  But this year his birthday fell in the school holidays, and being totally fed up of inviting all 33 classmates and only getting about 5 replies, I decided that maybe it was time for him to start having smaller parties where he just invited his close friends.  After some complaining and nagging, he eventually gave in.  So a small party it is.  We still haven't actually had this as he doesn't go back to school until next week so we're going to have it then.

We did have a fantastic day on his birthday though.  I decided the day before his birthday to make a cake for him.  At this point I must admit that I did go to the supermarket and look at the cakes.  I almost gave in the the temptation, but decided while staring at the shelves of shop bought cakes, that a) it would be cheaper to make my own, b) mine would (hopefully) taste better and c) I wanted to do it.  It would mean that I had actually done something for him other than buy and wrap a few presents.

So, the morning of his birthday I made him a chocolate cake.  A few sweets and Mario cars and Voilà!

I'm quite proud of it.  Though what matters more is that Zac loved it.  So much so that he couldn't even wait until it was finished.........

Licking the spoon is the best bit!

We had a fantastic, fun-filled, family day.  It was busy and noisy and everything a birthday should be.  Happy birthday to my gorgeous, not-so-little boy.  The last six year have flown by but they have been the best years of my life so far.

The day my life changed forever

A castle and a dragon hunt

We took the boys to Castell Coch today (Welsh for Red Castle)  Even though it's not far from where we live, I haven't been there since I was a little girl and every time I pass it I want to go inside.  Especially at night as it's all lit up so it actually looks red (the link I've included shows a picture of this).  It's not a real castle, though it is built on the foundations of one, but it is the most magical, fairytale building I have ever seen.  Another reason I wanted to take the boys there was to take them on a 'dragon hunt'.  I'd read about an amazing sculpture trail for children which includes a treasure chest, a fairy tree house and a scary dragon.  The boys were so excited.  Here's our day in pictures.....

Interior

Castell Coch

                           









The inside of the castle is just as amazing as the outside, with walls and ceilings painted with intricate drawings of animals and birds.  I'd forgotten how pretty it was.  The boys were amazed to find a bedroom at the top of a turret, with all the furniture completely intact.

Even the baby loved it

They can't wait to explore

After we'd examined every inch of the castle, with me having palpitations every time they walked down a steep, stone staircase without holding on, we went out into the grounds for a picnic.  It was bliss just lying on the grass on a beautiful Spring day.  

When everyone had eaten their fill we went off to find the dragon.  Now, this was something I hadn't done before so I had no idea where to look.  I had to send hubby to look at the map (my map reading skills are non-existent) and then off we went on our walk.  It was quite a way, and being quite warm plus having to carry the baby most of the way, it wasn't that easy.  But I'm so glad we did it.  Ethan was reciting verses from "We're Going On a Bear Hunt" (not exactly accurate we we understood the general idea!)  It was great fun.

Ollie having a walk
 

After walking up steep hills and along seemingly never ending paths (can you tell I'm not used to walking?!), we eventually came across the start of the sculpture trail.

Firstly, we discovered a spider.........

The boys were a bit scared as they thought it might come to life!  I blame Harry Potter for giving them a fear of wicked things in forests ;)

Next was a witches cauldron full of toads and creepy crawlies............

We were still on our dragon hunt and Ethan had his mighty sword ready to slay him.

And then we found him....... complete with a giants foot in his mouth.  What was he protecting I wonder?

We found carvings in the trees right by a fantastic treasure chest full of gold (I wish)

We'd found the treasure at last!  We'd hunted high and low, crept past defeated a spider, and slayed a dragon.  Hooray!  The boys were happy but exhausted and demanding ice-cream (erm, not a chance in the middle of the woods).  It was time to go home.

Zac is already looking forward to the next adventure

We're already planning where to go next weekend.  We're thinking dinosaurs....................